Help please! Restored from Time Machine and...

[Highmac]

Got the iMac (mid-2012) back with new HDD and Yosemite installed and "Restored from Time Machine". After over six hours it had completed the transfer and has to restart to complete. There's a restart "button" and a message that it is restarting, but all I've got is a revolving beachball. It's been going for about half an hour. Looks like I may have to power-button quit.

Any suggestions would be welcomed most warmly. The sooner the better, please, as it's getting time for bed and I'd rather not leave it running all night

[Xairbusdriver]

How old is the internal drive?

Winder how long it sat on the shelf after they fixed it and you picked it up?

Here are Apple's Startup troubleshooting methods: Mac startup key combinations
Safe Mode is probably the first one to try.
Next might be booting from the Recovery Drive.
Probably won't hurt to do the old Reset P/NVRAM step.
Perhaps reseting the System Management Controller?
The Verbose mode can help display problems during start up, but if it is getting to a 'normal' screen, the text may fly by too quick to be of much use.

As a last resort, of course, is to take it back to the people who had it last...

[Highmac]

First, apologies for the delay in responding. We've had a rather busy Sunday during which I soon learned computers were low on the list of priorities  

Thank you very much for so much info but it would seem my problem was lack of patience. I looked in at the Mac before going to bed (which was before you posted) and the ball was still revolving so just left it to get on... In the morning, it had completed all its tasks and was all ready to go. Seems the restart involved lengthier preparations than I expected. Also, I think being used to the MBP with its SSD has got me used to almost instant responses.

I've now started getting the licences and passcodes into the apps, which could take some time - I'm not the most efficient filing clerk

Edit to add: Revised signature is on the list

[Xairbusdriver]

First, GREAT!!!

QUOTE

I think being used to the MBP with its SSD has got me used to almost instant responses.

It is easy to fall into that trap... very easy and very fast! It had got to the point on my old iMac that I would simply not start Mail (with SpamSieve, included) and Safari at the same time. It was quite boring watching Mail's, Spamsieve's and Safari's icon bouncing on the bottom of the hidden Dock! :twiddle_fingers:

Now if something bounces more than once, I suspect a problem!